Women s Migration from Post-Soviet Moldova: Performing Transnational Motherhood By Cristina Onica Submitted to Central European University Department of Gender Studies In partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Arts in Gender Studies Supervisor: Dr. habil. Andrea Peto Budapest, Hungary 2008
Abstract The topic of transnational motherhood in the post-soviet context has been rarely studied by scholars. Using the oral history method for my research, I am concentrating on Moldovan women migrants justifications and meaning constructions around such debatable topics as motherhood and its transnational performances. The feminist scholarship dedicated to this topic, has mostly reflected the idea that migrant women, through their transnational practices, redefine motherhood. Based on the fieldwork I have done in Italy, I contend that women migrants, instead of redefining, try to find ways to adjust to the hegemonic social perceptions of good motherhood. They do so by employing the discourse of good parenting, which entails narratives on mothers-heroes, suffering mothers, and children-heroes. On the practical level, they do shift certain normative constructions of the social order and find alternative ways of performing motherhood, which helps them justify against the discourses of childabandoning. I find that these alternative techniques consist in negotiating citizenships, challenging the post-communist gender order and building transnational communication as sites for performing motherhood. In a broader context, my research reflects hidden aspects of globalization in the post-soviet space, such as the debates over the performances of human relationships, including affection and care. i
Acknowledgements Many thanks to Dr. habil. Andrea Peto for her support offered to me during the entire academic year and especially during the process of writing this thesis. Her valuable advice and comments have helped me shape my ideas for elaborating this thesis. I also appreciate Professor Francisca de Haan s assistance in suggesting me some relevant sources for my research. I thank the Moldovan migrant mothers, who kindly offered me their stories and helped me arrange other interviews useful for my research. I am also grateful to my colleagues and the faculty from the Gender Studies Department at CEU, whose challenging discussions during classes have helped me elaborate this thesis. Finally, I address my warmest thanks to Serkan Yolacan for helping me countless times and being there for me, as well as to my family, for supporting me throughout this tough year. ii
Table of Contents Introduction...1 Chapter 1 - Methodological Concerns: From a Linear to an Integrative Approach...4 1.1 Theoretical Frameworks: Migration through the Feminist Lens...4 1.2 Oral history: Let Women Tell Their Stories...11 Chapter 2 - Contextualizing Globalization Effects in Moldova and Italy...15 Chapter 3 - Migrant Mothers Negotiating Citizenship in a Globalized World...19 3.1 Transnational mothers as global agents...21 Chapter 4 - Crawling Mothers Building an Alternative Gender Order...26 4.1 Gender Order in the Post-Communist Households...27 4.1.1 Incorporating Gender into Migration Studies...27 4.1.2 The Post-Communist Household Relations...28 4.2 Transnational Mothers Crawling Heroes...31 4.2.1 The Gender Dilemma...32 4.2.2 From Mothers to Heroes through Deskilling and Transnational Communication...40 4.2.2.1 Employment Stories...41 4.2.2.2 Creating Virtual Spaces through Transnational Communication...49 Conclusion...53 Appendix...55 Glossary of Terms...58 Reference List...59 iii
Introduction In one of its information bulletins, the IOM Mission to Moldova has commented: About 177 thousand Moldovan children suffer from the fact that their parents leave them to earn money abroad. During the last years the number of children, who are being brought up without both of their parents doubled and constituted 1/3 of the minors. [ ] In the majority of cases women leave their children and the education without mothers has a worse effect than without fathers (IOM Mission to Moldova, October, 2007). This news comment reflects the general public opinion on Moldovan mothers who migrate abroad in search for opportunities to support their households, leaving their children in Moldova. The discourse of bad motherhood, applied to women migrants, is not rare among the people remained in the country 1 and the national mass media, and is shaped by the patriarchal gender constructions persistent in the Moldovan society. Despite the tension created by the national media around the massive flows of the population abroad, there has been little scholarly research performed in this post-soviet region that would concentrate on the gender aspect of the issue (Keough, 2006). Migration, in the Moldovan context, has been mostly discussed from the perspective of human trafficking, exploitation of Moldovan skilled labor force, and the role of remittances (Cr ciun, 2006; Cuc & Ruggiero, 2005; ILO Moldova, November, 2007; IOM Report, May, 2007; Red Cross for Central Europe, 2005; UNFPA, March, 2007), however the process has been often gender-blind, thus women s experiences, the meanings they construct around certain categories and their motivations have been often ignored (Keough, 2006). In fact, feminist scholars (Keough, 2006; Lutz, 2007; Passerini, Lyon, Capussotti, & Laliotou, 2007; Sassen 2000; Zimmerman, Litt & Bose, 2006; Waylen, 2004) widely complained 1 As reflected in Keough s (2006) interviews with people from southern villages and towns in Moldova, and in the interviews I have done with women migrants in Italy. 1
about the gender-blind nature of the mainstream works on globalization processes and the massive migration flows they foster. They argue that it is important to make sense of the emotional and the gendered implications of these processes, to include such hidden aspects as carework and the issue of the gendered division of labor in the mainstream studies. Another important gap in the literature is related to the fact that most feminist studies on women and the global market have concentrated on the North American context. Lutz (2007) writes that in many countries of continental Europe, the phenomenon is not (yet) an issue of public and academic (gender studies) discussion (p. 189). In the light of these heated debates, my focus on the post-soviet context appears to be novel. I argue that it is important to include it in studies on globalization and migration, as it helps scrutinizing the gendered impacts of the post-communist transition period and the changing household relations peculiar to this region, factors that have influenced the massive flows of women from this region to other parts of Europe. Focusing on the gender aspects of these processes, I am paying special attention to women migrants own constructions of meanings around socially debated topics, such as motherhood. My study concentrates on transnational motherhood and women migrants justifications related to the ways they perform it. Some feminist scholarship has been dedicated to this delicate topic, yet most of it has reflected the idea that migrant women, through their transnational practices, redefine motherhood (Anderson, 2000; Hochschild, 2000; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 2003; Lan, 2003; Parrenas, 2001; 2005; Raijman, Schammah-Gesser & Kemp, 2003). Based on the fieldwork I have done in Italy, interviewing Moldovan women domestic workers, I contend that women migrants, instead of redefining, try to find alternative ways to adjust to the hegemonic social perceptions of motherhood (which, besides envisioning them being physically present by their children, also considers mothers 2
affection, support, and communication) while at the same time, through their practices, countering the discourse of bad motherhood. They do so by employing various adjusting techniques, such as the citizenship negotiation, constructing an alternative gender order for their households and building transnational communication as sites for performing cross-border motherhood. I start by discussing the ways in which globalization processes and the restructuring policies affect the post-soviet household rationales and Moldovan women migrants decisions and actions related to migration and the performances of motherhood. I also compare the Italian and Moldovan contexts in terms of how global restructuring affects the gendered division of labor within the households of both countries and what is the value of the female labor in this context. Furthermore, I include the discussion on the gender order within the post-soviet households and argue that women migrants, trying to adjust to neoliberal principles, propose new breadwinning models to support their children. Finally, I look at what meanings these women give to the relationship with their children and what discourses help them justify their practices and build their image as good mothers. I also suggest that transnational communication (including various caring practices, such as sending remittances, packages, text messages, and phone calls) serves at creating virtual spaces where transnational women migrants perform their motherhood. This complex discussion reflects hidden aspects of globalization, which, according to Zimmerman et al. (2006), involves considerably more than labor markets and economic factors (p. 19). In this way, the present paper shows how global processes influence directly the performances of human relationships, including affection and care. 3
Chapter 1 - Methodological Concerns: From a Linear to an Integrative Approach The present research on transnational motherhood focuses on Moldovan women who migrate to Italy for work. 2 In order to understand the limitations and opportunities that foster the mass migration of these women, the post-communist context needs to be analyzed and explained. Female migration, associated in the feminist literature with the feminization of survival (Hess, 2005), must be explained through a comprehensive study on the nature of the household relations within the post-communist countries, because these relations explain the gendered hierarchy and aspects within the Moldovan family and the negotiations of power and meanings. An integrative approach is thus indispensable for a successful study on women s migration, as it considers the historical framework, the complex contemporary processes, such as globalization, the spread of a western model of market economy, all viewed from a gender-sensitive lens. 1.1 Theoretical Frameworks: Migration through the Feminist Lens There are a few theoretical frameworks that help conceptualize the aspects and concepts of my research. The feminist post-structuralist framework will be useful in questioning the structures that create push and pull factors in the female migration context, i.e. factors that create opportunities and limitations for women. It also allows explaining the experiences and meanings migrant mothers construct discursively around their performances of transnational parenting. This framework enables the explanation of how transnationalism constructs women s identities and affects their definition of motherhood; how motherhood is perceived culturally and 2 According to IOM Report (May, 2007) and ILO Report (November, 2007), most transnational migrants who prefer Italy are women (64 per cent), because there is an increasing demand for domestic workers (performing childcare, elderly care and also household work). According to L. J. Keough (2006), most Moldavian men go to Russia to work, while women prefer more Italy, where ethnic-romanians find high wages and a similar language. 4
contested or internalized individually, and what factors influence this construction and create meanings. The post-structuralist feminist framework is important because it allows making subjects visible by challenging the normative discourses and without essentialising categories (subjects that were previously unseen, because their experiences have not been analyzed from the point of view of their complexity). By making experiences visible, we break silence about them and challenge prevailing notions (Cheng, 1999; DeLaet, 1999; Phizacklea, 1998). Another important issue within the post-structuralist feminist framework, is related to my position as a researcher in the context of the study I have conducted. It is important to keep in mind not only the experiences of the subjects of study (migrant women, mothers, married or divorced, middle class, white, from Moldova), but also my experiences as a researcher (young, female, middle class, white, with a higher education, from Moldova). I also find useful intersectionality as an important analytical tool for my research. Categories like class, gender, race, sexuality, education, geographical location, etc. influence the way migrant women from the Eastern Europe are perceived in the West and how they perceive the cultural framework of the West as opposed to the East. 3 The construction of meanings (such as motherhood, gender order, citizenship) depends on the intra-action 4 of all these categories, because there is no one fixed identity; it is fluid in time and space. Thus, as Scott (1999) mentions, parallel narratives that construct a certain narrative (of transnational mothers in the case of my research) need to be taken into account. Indeed, when analyzing migrant women and how they perform parenting in the context of migration, it becomes 3 I am aware f the fact that using such categories as East and West is simplistic and essentialising; however, it helps me highlight cultural differences and inequalities that derive from these constructed categorizations. 4 I prefer to use the term intra-action rather than inter-action in order to emphasize that the categories influence each other while interacting, changing each other, altering and building new sites. For further explanation look for N. Lykke (2005). 5
important to scrutinize how the identities of these women are constructed from a complex point of view, taking into account the intertwining of several factors, such as the gender of the studied subjects, their class, their status as migrants, the whiteness of their skin, their ethnic origin, etc. A deeper account on intersectionality and its importance is offered in Dill and Zambrana s article, which contends for the need to introduce intersectionality as an analytical tool in researches on inequality and on oppression. According to them, inequality and oppression cause disparities in income, wealth, education, housing, occupation, and social benefits. These inequalities occur along such paradigms as gender, class, sexuality, nationality, ability (Dill & Zambrana, forthcoming, p. 1.). The authors further argue that if we, as researches or scholars, take these categories apart, then the experiences of entire groups are veiled, misinterpreted, and ignored. Indeed, intersectionality provides a useful critical and analytical tool to investigate and explain social and economical disparities women face, constraints and demands of various social structures that influence their options and opportunities, at the same time taking into account several contexts within which these women find themselves. Moreover, it challenges traditional ways of conducting a complex social analysis of migration and motherhood. In this track of thought, intersectionality helps explaining women migrants decisions related to migration strategies and what circumstances influence their choices. Furthermore, I find useful to apply several migration theories from a feminist perspective, such as the rational choice theory (it is gender-blind, however it explains the economical reasons of migration and how it is possible for individuals, as agents, to make choices (Harzig, 2001; Phizacklea, 1998)). I will further use the structuration theory to explain how disadvantaged individuals carve out spaces of control for themselves (Phizacklea, 1998, p. 28).The network theory examines the interconnections between migrants, the networks they create in order to 6
survive and keep national and transnational ties ; however it can also be accused of being gender-blind (Oishi, 2005; Rudolph & Hillmann, 1998). The theory of migration systems, as compared to the previous ones, contextualizes these networks historically, culturally and politically (ibid.). Introduced by gender studies, this theory considers migrant movements not as linear, but as complex ones, where people are perceived as multiple movers in more than one direction, being part of a larger and more complex structural relationships than the push-pull paradigm implies (Harzig, 2001, p. 16). Migration systems theory also explains how personal experiences of movers serve as information for other potential migrants, which helps them construct mental maps of migration, leading to comparatively fewer constraints and increased opportunities at the destination (ibid., p. 17). In the framework of my research, it helps investigating the ways certain factors and resources, including their transnational gendered networks, influence women migrants constructions of migration strategies and therefore, performances of motherhood. The new economics theory, incorporates a micro-level context by examining household strategies (Oishi, 2005, p. 9). Household strategies reflect the power relations within households and societies, therefore the traditional gender division of labor, the decision-making factors and the meanings the family member construct vis-à-vis certain concepts. The theory explains how households decide which of their members will migrate, on what basis and with what specific purposes. It has certain advantages, however, it fails in taking into account such factors as the marital status and the life stages of women (Cheng, 1999; Oishi, 2005). Situating these theories in analytical realms, the following structures emerge: theories on rational choice and new economics belong to the micro-level of analysis, the structuration theory belongs to the meso-level, and finally, the network theory and the theory of migration systems are situated on the macro-level. As Harzig (2001) argues, the meso-level proves to be 7
specifically important for scrutinizing the female migration patterns, because it links individual motivations and the larger socio-economic and political picture. Analyzing the broader social, political and economic frames and linking them to the individual one, implies looking at theories on globalization and the neoliberal discourses globalization processes entail. Globalization processes and their impacts on local and global landscapes have gained international interest during the late 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. This interest has been linked with the processes of democratization of former socialist states, nationalistic wars for independence, and the introduction of SAPs from the part of the International Monetary Fund (further referred as IMF), that have led to the division of states into post-socialist, post-welfare, third world, first world, and postcolonial (Keough, 2006). Various scholars have debated over the definitions of globalization and what meanings the global reforming processes have generated. Globalization has been generally defined as internationalization, liberalization, universalization, westernization and deterritorialization (Scholte, 2000, p. 15-17). The feminist attempt to include people in studying global restructuring processes, and to explain how global processes give legitimacy to certain sexual and racial inequalities, help explaining how gendered actors/subjects interact with global and local structures in order to construct and regulate the processes (Sassen, 2000; Waylen, 2004). In the framework of my research, it is important to consider these processes from a feminist perspective, in order to understand how changes in capitalist trade and production patterns have generated gendered patterns of migration. Several feminist scholars (Akalin, 2007; Enloe, 2006; Hess, 2005; Hill Maher, 2003; Keough, 2006; Lutz, 2007; Parrenas, 2001; 2005; Sassen, 2006; Sharpe, 2001; Waylen, 2004; Zimmerman et al., 2006; Passerini et al., 2007) argue that globalization processes marked by post-fordist modes of production and the emergence of 8
transnational spaces have opened up new rhetoric and spaces that lead to the gradual feminization of transnational labor. Indeed, one of the basic human reactions to global restructuring lies in people s mass migration (Zimmerman et al., 2006), or it has been preferred by certain scholars to name it - transmigration (Hess, 2005). Hess (2005) points out that transmigrants are immigrants, whose daily lives depend on multiple and constant interconnections across international borders, and whose public identities are configured in relationship to more than one nation-state (p. 229). The contemporary era is marked by transnational migrations, and women play a significant, yet non-acknowledged role in this sense. As Zimmerman et al. (2006) put it, globalization depends a great deal not only on the capital and information, but also on the participation, recruitment and the exploitation of women. In the context of the post-socialist countries, the post 1990s period could be called the age of women s creativity, as Hess (2005) suggests (I would call it forced creativity, because women are constrained by certain economical and political circumstances to be creative ), when women (due to high economical instability) look for alternative (informal) ways of supporting themselves and their families (migration perspectives included). Migrant women s labor serves as support not only for their own households, but also for their sending country s national economy, as well as that of the receiving one. A significant amount of feminist literature on migration and globalization has discussed the role of remittances sent by women migrants in sustaining both the developed and the developing countries economic landscapes (Enloe, 2006; Hill Maher, 2003; Lutz, 2007; Sharpe, 2001). Feminist scholarship on global restructuring and female transmigration encompasses a broad range of topics related to reconceptualizing citizenship within transnational contexts, women s legal, social and economic status, reconceptualizing carework as a political act, and so 9
on. All these studies stress on the importance of including such dimensions as the cultural and emotional underpinnings of the mobility (Passerini et al., 2007, p. 3), in order to understand the subjective motives behind migrants decisions and their search for personal, economic or political freedom. Several feminist works have concentrated on transnational motherhood (Anderson, 2000; Hochschild, 2000; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 2003; Lan, 2003; Parrenas, 2001; Raijman et al., 2003; Zimmerman et al., 2006), scrutinizing the way migrant mothers construct cross-border emotional ties with their children, through such practices as care. Raijman et al. (2003) point out that the US feminist researchers were the first ones to contest the essentialising view on motherhood that presupposes that mothers share a universal and natural set of values and experiences (p. 196). Agreeing with this track of thought, I am approaching motherhood as a relationship between women and their offspring, constructed through the interaction and the changing nature of three main social resources: the family, national communities and the market. This definition helps understanding the reasons and the ways in which the performances of motherhood are changing and fitting certain contexts, including the transnational ones. The phenomenon of transnational motherhood has been approached from different angles by these scholars, however they all agree that both motherhood and carework are very much tied to global migration, state resources, and labor practices in both developing and economically prosperous nations (Raijman et al., 2003, p. 195). Hondagneu-Sotelo and Avila s (1997) analysis of Mexican immigrant women s performances of transnational motherhood is limited to the study of the virginity and sexuality issue. Keough (2006) looks in her study on mobile mothers from G uzia, 5 at how narratives about the mobility of mothers reveal anxiety about a gendered social order and how these anxieties are expressed and contested by 5 Autonomous region in Moldova. The Gagauz are a predominantly rural population of Orthodox Christian Turkicspeaking peoples. (Keough, 2006). 10
migrant women themselves. Raijman et al. (2003) include in their study on Latina female migrants in Israel an important point, stating that transnational motherhood openly subverts traditional conceptions of mother-child bonds nurtured daily within the home and conventional and conventional views that employment and motherhood are mutually exclusive (p. 146). They go on explaining that through transnational practices, the meanings of motherhood shifts, as migrant women redefine their roles and reconceptualize mothering. This is a shared view among feminist scholars (Anderson, 2000; Hondagneu-Sotelo & Avila, 1997; Keough, 2006; Parrenas, 2001), which I would like to challenge in this thesis. There is no doubt that transnational practices lead to the subversion of certain traditional concepts and perceptions of the social order, however I am not convinced that women migrants redefine and construct new forms of motherhood, at least not in the post-soviet context. I contend that female migrants from this region try to adjust to social norms of their communities that prescribe the ways mothering should be performed. In their quest for alternative ways of performances, these women also counter discourses of bad motherhood, by adapting certain methods, such as negotiating with citizenships, constructing virtual spites for the performances of transnational motherhood through the trans-border communication, and building an alternative gender order for their households. Thus, within the confines of my research, transnational motherhood is analyzed through the intersection of these methods. 1.2 Oral history: Let Women Tell Their Stories Given the fact that my research focuses on constructions of beliefs and meanings (motherhood, interpersonal networks, family relations and responsibilities); I find qualitative research methods suitable. As Denzin (2003) mentions, it is important to question the biased link between me, the researcher, with certain experiences and backgrounds, and the women I 11
interview, as gendered subjects of my research, with their own backgrounds and experiences. I find it important to include verisimilitude, emotionality, and multivoiced texts into my research, in order to examine the varieties of experiences. The oral history method, defended mostly by feminist scholars, appears to be extremely helpful in making women s voices heard, penetrating the depth of their own thoughts and feelings. As Portelli (1998) and Fontana & Frey (2003) point out, oral histories open up new possibilities for studying the intentions and motivations of nonhegemonic classes (in the case of my research, non-hegemonic classes would be the transnational mothers). Reinharz (1992) also contends that the feminist oral history, in-depth interviews, and case studies are useful methods in explaining how the experiences of others are translated through our own experiences as researchers, how inter-personal networks are rooted in the past and are transmuted into the present. All in all, I have conducted nine in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Moldovan women, aged between 20 and 50, who have migrated to Italy in search for employment opportunities (see the Table in the Appendix). They are all mothers, five of them are married, two are widowed and other two are divorced. They all belong to the middle class, as migrating needs a certain starting capital, or relatives and connections that can provide this capital, therefore the class of these migrant women matters in this sense. Seven of these women have university degrees and had white-collar jobs in Moldova, other two do not have higher education or working experience. All of them are employed as domestic workers in Italian households, taking care of old people and managing the chores (cleaning and cooking). For my fieldwork, I have chosen two Italian cities: Bologna and Turin, 6 where I have two trusted sources. To get in touch with other informants, I have used the snowball sampling method: my two basic informants referred to their friends and acquaintances willing to discuss 6 Upon the request of my informants, the names of the cities are changed. 12
with me about their transnational practices. I have also attended several dinners with Moldovan migrants, where I took part in informal discussions related to migrants personal problems and issues related to their work, their expectations, successes, and future plans. For the interviews conducted with women migrants, I have used fieldnotes and a digital voice recorder. All the interviews have been later transcribed and the most appealing parts have been translated from Romanian to English. In my analysis of the transcriptions, I have used the method of narrative analysis to investigate migrant women s positions, the motivations behind their thoughts and actions and how they contest or support dominant discourses. Basically, the questions were related to women migrants perspectives, views and emotions regarding their performances of motherhood, the meanings they construct around transnational relationships with their children and families, their expectations and motivations regarding the strategies they have chosen to adjust to or challenge certain cultural beliefs and categories. During my entire fieldwork, I kept in mind the importance of following ethical considerations, such as the right to privacy of my informants. I have asked their permission to record their voices during the interviews, and I have changed their names and location. I have obtained their permission to use the interviews for the purposes of my research, informing them that they could later see my interpretation of their words. Relating my position as a researcher to that of my interviewees, I am aware of the fact that the results and interpretations I have produced (after having analyzed the oral histories of migrant women) have been affected to a certain extent by my own familial, social and cultural backgrounds. The fact that I am a Moldovan woman, just like the subjects of my research, puts me in a privileged position to a certain extent, because we share the same sex, language, cultural and historical backgrounds. The fact that I have higher education has placed me in an unequal 13
position with some of the women I have talked to, as not all of them have a university degree. Due to this circumstance, they felt a bit reluctant to open up and speak frankly at the beginning. Another obstacle I found is related to the fact that I have no experience in mothering or being married, fact that may have prevented me from understanding some of the subtleties related to the relationship between these mothers and their children. However, reading relevant feminist scholarship has helped me in my further analysis. One of the advantages relates to the fact that I am a middle class woman, just like the women I have interviewed, however my position (and role in this project) is that of a researcher, circumstance that immediately creates unequal power relations between me and the subjects of my study. Their social status as (un- or documented) migrants and domestic workers may have caused feelings of frustration in them, especially in the case when their present labor in Italy does not reflect their education and social status in Moldova. In certain cases, my position as a researcher has helped me gain sympathy and therefore trust of some of my informants, especially when they could find similarities between me and their own children studying in Moldova or other countries. Another factor that has influenced the outcome of my research is my age. In some cases, it constituted an obstacle and on other cases - an advantage, which either helped me find ways to relate to the women I have interviewed, or has placed me in an inferior position (due to my lack of experiences in certain contexts). 14
Chapter 2 - Contextualizing Globalization Effects in Moldova and Italy This chapter explains the reasons why Italy has become such a popular destination country for women migrants, and what makes Moldova a popular sending country. The comparative analysis of both Moldovan and Italian contexts allows investigating the impacts of globalization processes on the gender order and division of labor within the households of these countries. Both Moldova and Italy have long histories of migration: Italy has been the main provider of migrant labor force to the New World in the nineteenth century, and today it has become the receiving country for many Moldovan migrants, especially women. Keough (2006) recounts how global economic restructuring policies affect Moldovan state policies in a way that constantly loaning and being indebted, it has to shift its policy priorities from providing employment and social services to supporting migration as a route to development. Various development organizations have advised Moldovan state to build a system of capturing remittances (Bloch, 2006; ILO Moldova, November, 2007; Keough, 2006) benefiting thus from the migrant labor. The development of the Moldovan state depends heavily on migrant labor, managing flows abroad, even illegal ones, becoming not in the state s interest. 7 In this context, women s transnational flows constitute an important support for the country s economical growth and help stabilize the crisis. The IOM (May, 2007) and ILO Reports (November, 2007) reveal that 64 per cent of Moldovan migrants in Italy are women, because there is an increasing 7 IOM Report (May, 2007): Around one third of the gross domestic product of Moldova is constituted by remittances migrants send home. ILO Moldova (November, 2007): Remittances have a significant potential for generating economic growth. In countries such as Moldova with a large diaspora the value of remittances exceed both that of FDI and development assistance. 15
demand for domestic workers in this country and because there are language similarities between Italian and Romanian languages, which makes assimilation easier. 8 Degiuli (2007) writes that the need for eldercare assistance in post-industrial societies, such as Italy, is growing and migrant women are increasingly required to offer this assistance. Lutz (2007) points out that the re-evaluation of the asymmetrical relation between care work and gainful employment has never been on the agenda of the EU or national state policies (p. 188). Due to this situation, as various female scholars studying transnationalism in a globalized age contend, cutting off social services in post-welfare states, such as Italy, creates deficit in public care assistance, thus placing the responsibility of care work back into families, and more specifically to women within families (Akalin, 2007; Degiuli, 2007; Lutz, 2007; Passerini et al., 2007). Lutz (2007) notes that all in all, care work has remained a female domain, reflecting the fact that many states now discuss the compatibility of gainful employment and family work as women s problem (p. 188). It becomes evident that neoliberal market strategies have had a strong gendered impact not only in the sending states, but in the receiving ones as well. Thus, households from these post-welfare states, Italy included, have several options when it comes to elderly, home and childcare: they can pay a large sum of money to a private institution, they can address to a public institution (however it is not always guaranteed that there are enough places for elders or children, for example), or they can hire a person to perform care work. Most convenient, and therefore most often, the labor of migrant women is preferred to all the other options described above. This phenomenon, based on historical gender assumptions on household labor, has played a crucial role in generating female mass flows from the post-soviet 8 Today, the official language of the Republic is Moldovan (an official designation for otherwise Romanian), however Russian remains the second widely spoken language in this region. Moldova was a part of Romania attached to the Tsarist Empire in 1812. After the dissolution (1917-1918), it joined Romania again. In 1940, Moldova was again attached to the Soviet Union as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and parts of it were attached to Ukraine (today, the Chernivtsi oblast and Budjak). 16
countries to Italy. In gender terms, both the sending and the receiving states need female labor in order to adjust to neoliberal rationales. Capussotti et al. (2007) argue that in Italy traditional gender relations predominate in the division of domestic labor, and that the presence of migrant domestic and care workers within homes is not something unusual. Women have access to paid jobs and benefit by a more or less stable and high income, however this participation does not bring changes in the organization of domestic labor between native men and women. In these conditions, domestic work and care work are handed over to the marginalized sections of the population (Degiuli, 2007, p. 193), who are in most cases migrant women. Degiuli s (2007) work on female migrant domestic workers in Italy offers an interesting account the reasons why Italian middle class households are increasingly in need of migrant women s labor. She argues that Italy, along with having a longstanding negative growth rate, also provides inadequate state policies to respond to a progressively older population (p. 193). She also provides information on the fact that today, 20 per cent of Italian population is over 60 years old, which means that around 14.7 million people would require care services at some stage of their lives. This factor, in combination with others that are no less important (growing lack of caretakers within native families, because of the growing process of native women entering the labor market 9 ; low birth rate, also resulting in the reduction of caretakers within Italian families; shortages in the Italian public health service; traditional gender expectations persisting within Italian households, namely that women are in charge of the domestic sphere; the reluctance of native women to institutionalize elders, due to the high costs of private care institutions or the limited space in the public ones), have led in 9 In 2006, 46.7 percent of Italian women were participating in the labor market (ISTAT, 2007). In F. Degiuli (2007), p. 193. 17
recent years to a growing demand for home eldercare assistants. In these conditions, migrant women are welcome to fill the position the native women once filled in the domestic sphere. 18
Chapter 3 - Migrant Mothers Negotiating Citizenship in a Globalized World Who would have thought I d end up living this kind of life I was born in Moldova, then I struggled to gain Romanian citizenship and now I m in Italy (Aliona) The feminist outlook on global restructuring and women s mass migration brings into the arena of debate the issue of transnational motherhood and the various meanings attached to it. Numerous feminist scholars (Anderson, 2000; Hochschild, 2000; Hondagneu-Sotelo & Avila, 1997; Lan, 2003; Parrenas, 2001; Raijman et al., 2003; Sharpe, 2001; Zimmerman et al., 2006) point out that today, the transnational way of living is not a new phenomenon and thousands of women experience it. The latter include migrant mothers, who in order to support financially their households, work abroad as maids, housekeepers, personal care assistants. Through their transnational labor, these women also support the economies of both the receiving and the sending states. Working mothers become thus pivotal forces for the social and economic security through the carework they provide in countries that have deficit in such facilities, and the remittances they send to their families. As it has been previously suggested, the concept of transnational motherhood includes the intra-action between the family, national communities and the market. Most of the works on female migration and its impacts on the social order conclude that this intra-action conditions migrant women s reconceptualizations of motherhood (Anderson, 2000; Hondagneu-Sotelo & Avila, 1997; Keough, 2006; Parrenas, 2001; Raijman et al., 2003). Despite agreeing that certain hegemonic constructions of the social order are being shifted through female migrants practices (such as the cult of domesticity (Raijman et al., 2003, p. 154)), I argue that, on a rhetorical level, these women try to adjust to the socially prescribed norms of mothering without redefining 19
them. However, their adapting techniques include alternative practices of performing transborder parenting. Thus, they do not counter the perception of mothers as primary caretakers for their children, yet, their transnational lifestyles do not allow them to be physically present by their offspring. As this chapter proves, in order to compensate this non-traditional distance, female migrants perform motherly care and affection through the citizenship negotiation, which also serves as self-justification against discourses on bad motherhood. For the purposes of this chapter, I use Glenn s (2002) definition of formal citizenship: being created through law and policy, it defines rights and responsibilities, and it creates a legal structure that legitimates the recognition (or denial) of individuals as citizens (p. 109). I also count in the less rigid approach to defining citizenship: [it] is not just a matter of formal legal status; it is a matter of belonging, including recognition by other members of the community (ibid., p. 123). Deriving from these conceptions, I contend that migrant women from Moldova, through their transnational practices (which include trans-migration, migrant networks, transborder carework), employ strategic citizenship negotiations. By these techniques, I mean migrants sophisticated methods of adjustment to neoliberal discourses in a globalized world. Thus, through inventiveness, which is conditioned by certain economical and political circumstances (the collapse of the Soviet Union, the following economical crisis in Russia in 1994 and in the entire post-soviet space, poverty, political instability), migrants are dragged into strategic arrangements. These consist of planning carefully movements throughout geographical spaces, building certain networks that help them legalize their stay in certain countries, gaining citizenships (most often the Romanian one), residence permits (in Italy or other receiving countries) or other documents that ease their life conditions. 20
Transnational networks play a crucial role in women migrants calculations and decisions related to citizenship arrangements, and their performances of family support and motherhood. Rudolph & Hillmann (1998) define networks, in the context of migration, as [p]eople, objects and events [that] are conceptualized as nodes or actors in the network which are related through ties or links (as cited in Koser & Lutz (eds.), 1998, p. 65). Feminist scholars (Laliotou, 2007; Lutz, 2007; Passerini, 2007) have long pointed out that the social capital of migrants (i.e. networks) dictates their movements, linking the physical and subjective aspects of mobility. Laliotou (2007) notes that [r]elationships that are created prior to migration have an impact on the decision to move, whereas other relationships become important after the relocation to a new place, where they facilitate changes in the conditions of one s life and outlook (as cited in Passerini, 2007 ; p. 59). Thus, through networks, women migrants gain a certain social capital that facilitates their calculations and helps them find ways to arrange their citizenship negotiations. 3.1 Transnational mothers as global agents The discussion on women migrants and the citizenship negotiation they engage in relates to the question of agency. Regarding this issue, feminist scholars are divided into two basic camps: the ones who conceptualize women migrants as victims of the global restructuring processes (such as Sassen, 2006, and Chang, 2000), and the ones who define them as global agents (such as Sharpe, 2001). Those who employ the victim discourse consider female migrant work as exploitative, thus devaluing women. They argue that women s decisions to migrate are not voluntary, but rather conditioned by the demands of the affluent countries households. Those who defend the agency discourse consider female migrants as engaged actors in their own lives. 21
In the light of these debates, I am inclined to position Moldovan women migrants as agents, or as Sharpe (2001) names them, well-informed global players. If the mass migration of women from developing countries is fostered by the poverty crisis, then the demands of the affluent countries households are also based on a different kind of crisis, and namely on the care deficit. Migrant women are agents in as far as they build plans and calculate their own transnational moves and very often, those of their children. Making use of their transnational networks (friends, employers, family, kin, neighbors), they plan carefully their transnational wanderings, the steps to be followed by the members of their family, especially their children. As my fieldwork shows, the citizenship negotiation is the most evident example of migrant women s agency. Finding themselves in a difficult economical and political situation (after the 1990s), being unable to support their families (in many cases neither they, nor their male partners) and to move freely throughout the geographical space (due to visa restrictions) in search for means of earning money, transnational mothers are constrained to come up with sophisticated methods in order to adjust to these post-communist conditions. The interviewed women recount how after the collapse of the social support system after the 1990s, lacking the support of the state in raising their children, they were compelled to find new ways to combine work and mothering, while continuing to preserve the role of the housekeeper within their own households. Very few of the interviewed women enjoy the support of their male partners in raising their children and keeping the households. The divorced women complain that after the separation, their partners refused to support their children, women who are still married complain that it is hard for men (especially with aging) to find a well-paid job anywhere, be it in Moldova or in other countries. Resulting from these conditions, Moldovan women see themselves compelled to take on the role of the breadwinner, the searcher of options in order to survive. 22
Negotiating with citizenships became one of the basic means of survival for them after the 1990s. Three of my interviewees have gained Romanian citizenship after the 1990s, four of them have obtained legal residence permit in Italy and other two are still undocumented, yet searching for the networks support to help them legalize their status within Italy (see the Table in the Appendix): What do you think? That they will stay illegal forever? [smiles] Most of our Moldovan women, who come illegally to Italy and look for jobs, wait for two or three years until somebody helps them legalize their stay. Usually, an Italian family for whom they work, or Moldovan relatives, who already have a legal status here, help them obtain the residence permit. For me it was easier I was born in Moldova, then I struggled to gain Romanian citizenship and now I am in Italy and I have no regrets. (Aliona) Owning two citizenships serves as a comfort for Aliona, both because it offers her flexibility to move legally throughout space and because she can choose to raise her son beside her. She positions herself against undocumented migrant mothers, perceiving herself as more resourceful, because she managed to plan better her citizenship negotiation (by gaining the Romanian passport). She also emphasizes in her narrative how the passport becomes a serious matter of concern for women migrants in general. Legalizing their status in Italy (by gaining residence permit) becomes an important goal for undocumented women, through which they can arrange better their affairs. Planning negotiations also entails for transnational mothers planning the moves to be followed by their children and relatives. Rina, mother of two, works in Italy for 7 years. Born in Moldova, she has lived during most of her youth years in the western part of Ukraine, where she worked and married. Having divorced her husband, she has moved back to Moldova with her children. After the divorce, the husband did not show any concern about his children s welfare, therefore Rina has decided to migrate to Italy to work. She first came illegally and later, in three years, with the help of her Italian employers, has succeeded in 23
legalizing her residence within this country. Having obtained a residence permit in Italy, she has started preparing the documents for her daughter to join her (her son being reluctant to come to work there): My boy has studied at university in Romania, now he looks there for a job, and my girl is finally with me in Italy. She also studies at university in Moldova: it is a long distance learning program. Perhaps this is the realization of my initial plan. At the beginning, I thought we would integrate together either in Moldova, or in Italy. It was not determined. But, we saw that in Moldova we do not have chances, and the perspectives are low, to our biggest disappointment. This is the reality of our country. We work, we lead an honest life, but it is difficult. That s why this integrity [of the family] is possible on the territory of the European Union. [my emphasis] Being a single woman, with two children, having no support from the part of her husband after the divorce, Rina constructs a transnational citizenship plan through which she is able to support her children and offer them higher education, performing thus, what she considers to be her motherly duties towards her offspring. Elena constructs through her narrative an entire household s active participation in arranging future moves. She has migrated together with her husband to Italy. They both were born in Moldova, and after graduating from university, they were both sent to western Ukraine to work, 10 where they married and lived for a long period. Their children were born in Ukraine, where they studied at a Russian school. Later, the entire family gained the Romanian citizenship, and the children moved to Romania (Galati) to study at high school and later at university. Before the children moved to Romania to study (at the beginning of the 1990s), the mother traveled for work purposes occasionally (once in three months) to Poland, Bulgaria, Turkey, while the father remained in Ukraine. Later, being supported by their elder daughter, who was (in 10 This often happened in Soviet times: young people were sent in various Soviet regions after they graduated from university. Western Ukraine was a popular place among youth, because people in that region also speak Romanian as their native language. The western part of Ukraine once belonged to Romania (before the Second World War), and was given to Ukraine by the Soviets. Migrant women from that region still call it Bucovina (the original name of that former part of Romania), and speak the Romanian language fluently. 24